Mexican actor gives up fame to make movies that touch lives

By Deborah Gyapong

Catholic News Service

OTTAWA (CNS) -- If the story of the rich young man from the Gospel of Matthew had a sequel updated for modern times, it might resemble the life of actor Eduardo Verastegui, a Catholic who stars in the film “Bella.”

In the Gospel account, Jesus tells the young man to sell all he has and follow him, but the man goes away sorrowful. In the modern-day sequel, Verastegui sells all he has and is prepared to give up his budding acting career to follow Jesus.

Verastegui had reached the zenith of Mexican celebrity as a soap star and singer who had toured at least 13 countries to sold-out crowds. His resume includes everything from appearing as Jennifer Lopez’s love interest in a music video to the starring role in the 20th Century Fox movie “Chasing Papi” and a co-starring role in the independent film “Meet Me in Miami.” Verastegui also has been listed as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in the magazine People en Espanol.

But while studying English in Los Angeles, he found himself drawn to a deeper faith in Jesus through the example of his Catholic teacher, and he began to see all the reasons he had wanted to be an actor -- fame, money and pleasure -- as empty and vain.

He also realized that he had been typecast into portraying the unfaithful, lying Latin lover, which promoted negative stereotypes. He said the media portrayal of Hispanics in general demeaned both men and women, resembling nothing like the dignity and beauty of his mother and sisters in Mexico.

Verastegui said he discovered he had hurt people through his work, and the messages in his movies were “poisoning society.”

“It broke my heart,” he said at the annual Rose Dinner in Ottawa May 10, following the 10th annual March for Life in Ottawa. “I realized I had offended God.”

He said he spent “many months in tears.”

Verastegui sold his possessions, wondering if God was calling him to be a priest, perhaps in the jungles of South America. His spiritual adviser, however, told him: “Hollywood is a bigger jungle.”

He vowed to refuse parts unless they affirmed life and human dignity. For three years, he went without work, because all the parts offered him involved the “same negative stereotypes.”

“We are not called to be successful, we are called to be faithful,” Verastegui said. “I wasn’t born to be famous, or rich; I was born to know and love and serve Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then in 2004 he met movie producer Leo Severino while attending daily Mass.

Severino, who also spoke at the dinner, returned to Catholicism in 1999 while reading Christian apologetics. He began attending daily Mass, but he found most of the other churchgoers were “gray hairs cramming for their final exam.”

Younger Christians like himself were scarce in the mostly anti-religion world of Hollywood.

Then he noticed another young man at Mass. Severino said he soon discovered, “This guy’s the Brad Pitt of Mexico.”

Not long after their meeting, Verastegui and Severino co-founded Metanoia Films with the intention to produce movies that could change lives and hearts. “Bella,” released in 2006, is Metanoia’s first film. It won the coveted People’s Choice Award at last fall’s Toronto Film Festival.

Severino said the media, especially film and television, are “shaping our culture.” He said the movie “Million Dollar Baby” promoted euthanasia and “Cider House Rules” glorified abortion. “Natural Born Killers” influenced the Virginia Tech shooter, he said.

“Art and morality go hand in hand,” he said, urging young people to guard their eyes and ears and their innocence. “God does not use evil means,” he said.